The hopes of Democrats seeking to attract independents or left-leaning Republicans into the fold may have been dashed Tuesday with the announcement of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. After weeks of contention and wide-
ranging speculation with suggestions from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly, Harris’ decision to select Walz, who coined the narrative of President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance being “weird,” is being received with mixed responses.
In a scene that mirrored reports from outside the home of Sen. Vance before the Republican National Convention, eagle-eyed local reporters spotted the Black Chevy Suburban calling cards of the US Secret Service departing Walz’s St. Paul home Monday night, tipping off many political analysts.
But rather than the more widely positive response the Vance has enjoyed from all but his most ardent detractors, the introduction of Walz to the political equation rather than the more highly favored Gov. Shapiro or Sen. Kelly has drawn significant criticism for Harris.
Walz’s open enthusiasm for unvarnished socialism, in his own words during the now infamous “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom Conference, his eagerness to impose transgender ideology on schools, and giveaways of driver’s licenses and college educations to illegal immigrants seem certain to send independents running for the GOP. Not to mention his implication in the ‘Feeding our Future’ fraud scandal over COVID relief funds that rocked Minnesota politics in 2022.
Anti-Trump Republican A.J. Delgado summarized the blowback well in a thread posted to X, “Walz? What a mistake. That's all I'll say on the matter. I can't keep wasting time helping. You needed to win PA, you had Shapiro right there, and you passed. Epic mistake that prob cost Harris the election.”
Delgado added, “Harris just made the SAME mistake Trump made -- a VP pick that her base demanded, versus the candidate that appealed to the center/moderates that you need to bring in to win. Walz is just as liberal, if not more so, than Harris. What a colossal mistake.”
Walz’s most damning moment for many though came four years ago in his lack of response to the 2020 BLM riots that followed the death of George Floyd. So inept was Walz’s handling of the situation that he was harshly criticized by radical-left Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey per The New York Post.
Frey told the Star Tribune, “We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear,” while rioters besieged the city adding Walz “did not say yes,” to providing assistance, saying rather “he would consider it.”
As observed by The Post Millennial, during the riots Walz expressed a justifying sentiment to reporters as violent rioters burned Minneapolis, “A society that does not put equity and inclusion at the center of it is certainly going to come to the places we are at.”
During a press conference he told the nation, “I want to just be clear there's philosophically an argument to be made that an armed presence on the ground in the midst of where we just had a police killing is seen as a catalyst,” according to CNN.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took to X swiftly to condemn Harris’ choice of Walz. Putting it succinctly he wrote,
“Minnesota was ground zero for the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. Harris egged it on and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.”
As reported by the Post, Walz would later pin the blame on Frey accusing him of losing control of his city. Walz even called Frey’s response an “abject failure.”
The Trump Campaign responded to the announcement from Harris with a statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying:
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State. While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks’. From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide. If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
In an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released Tuesday the American people appear to hold a similar view with only 17% of those polled holding a favorable view of the 60-year-old Minnesota Governor. Overwhelmingly though, 71% of Americans have never heard of Walz and are unsure how to rate him according to Breitbart. It seems that the Trump campaign now has the task of informing the American people of the danger that a Harris-Walz administration would represent.
Matthew Holloway is a contributor for Conservative HQ. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@theconservativefreelancer.com.
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He sounds like a white version of Fuehrer Barry the Fairy Obama-with the exception of being straight.